Posted 19 December 2012

Rev your engines for the GT Academy Challenge

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Hello everyone. For those gamers enjoying the bumper version of Gran Turismo known as the GT5: Academy Edition, the next few weeks will get even more interesting. The special seasonal event included with GT5: AE – the GT Academy Challenge – is about to kick off.

The event runs from 00.01am GMT on 1st January 2013 until 11.59pm GMT on 31st January, and includes an exclusive new track and car challenge for Gran Turismo fans to master.

All you have to do to get involved is redeem the GT Academy Challenge PSN voucher included in your game box then, fire up GT5 and head into the ‘Seasonal Events’ area and you’re good to go!

Additionally, the top six gamers from the following countries – Austria, Czech Rep., Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rep. of Ireland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE and UK – have the chance to win an exciting driving day at Silverstone in March. The six online winners will be joined by one additional lucky winner from a special live challenge held earlier this year at Paris Motor Show.

To be eligible for the driving day, entrants will need to register their details on gran-turismo.com from later today.

At the conclusion of the driving day one of the lucky Silverstone seven will be awarded the grand prize of a trip to the world famous Le Mans 24 hour race as a guest of Nissan, for themselves and a companion of their choosing.

GT5: Academy Edition was of course inspired by the ground-breaking GT Academy programme that we run with our partner Nissan, here’s what Kazunori Yamauchi, President of Polyphony Digital had to say:

“GT5: Academy Edition was created to celebrate the success of the GT Academy programme which has continued to grow in 2012. We had over 830,000 people across Europe enter GT Academy and our 2012 champions from Europe, Germany, Russia and the USA have now completed their Driver Development Programmes and are ready to race in the Dubai 24 Hours from 10th to 12th January in two Nissan 370Zs.

“While those winning gamers are racing for real, our GT Academy Challenge seasonal event will be taking place in-game. Seven lucky players will also get a taste of the GT Academy experience at Silverstone.”

If you haven’t yet picked up GT5: Academy Edition it makes a fine late stocking filler, priced at €29.99/£20.41. As well as the exclusive competition, purchasers of GT5: Academy Edition also receive a 25% discount voucher for the Gran Turismo Boutique online store.

The Academy Edition version has been re-mastered from the original game to include all functionality updates since its launch as well as bonus DLC – including more than 30 extra vehicles and three new courses, plus paint packs and racing gear. The DLC comprises – Complete Pack (Car Pack, Course Pack, Special Paint Pack, Racing Gear Pack), Car Pack 2, Car Pack 3 and Speed Test Pack.

The game also includes a special new Nissan GT-R driven in the 2012 Nürburgring 24H race by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi with team-mate Lucas Ordoñez, the first GT Academy winner.

And just why can’t early adopters of the original version not take their chance in this challenge?? Seems really weird to exclude the biggest GT fans and only allow people who waited over a year to support PD by buying the game…

So gutted that I’ll be in Sydney from 26th December through to January but I might catch the Last week of it and put in some times.

But I just realised I don’t have the GT Academy Edition :( Had my Promo Copy of GT5 since it was Released so never felt the need to purchase another Boxed Copy as I bought all the DLC that came out on the Store. Oh well great for those entering as these events are alot of fun!

If indeed these events are only available to the gt academy edition holders, then this saddens me as I preordered the game and got it the day it was released. I for one like originality in the games boxing so I will not be buying the newer version, as I am with all games. I prefer buying the dlc from the playstation store. If this is true I suppose a loyal fan of gran Turismo since the demo of the first installment will miss out on the given extras :/